Taliban announces ceasefire to revive peace talks with Pakistan government

Updated
Sun 2 Mar 2014, 3:05 AM AEDT

The Pakistani Taliban has announced a one-month ceasefire aimed at reviving stalled peace talks with Pakistan's government.

"The senior leadership of the Taliban advises all subgroups to respect the Taliban's call for a ceasefire and abide by it and completely refrain from all jihadi activities in this time period," Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, said in a statement on Saturday.

Peace talks between the Pakistani government and Taliban insurgents began on February 6 but broke down after insurgents said they executed 23 paramilitary Frontier Corps members in revenge for the killing of their fighters by army forces.

Senior Taliban officials said they announced the ceasefire after receiving assurances from the government that they would not be attacked.

"Senior officials of the federal government promised us the government and its law-enforcement agencies would not take any action against our people in the country," a senior Taliban commander said.

"You can say the government first announced ceasefire and we did it later."

He declined to say who in the government made the guarantee.

Government officials have been contacted for confirmation on the matter.